Meet three of our #Dros27 plenary speakers! 🧠 Vanessa Auld 🪰 @nabroderick.bsy.social 🧬 Don Fox From glial biology to host-microbe interactions to genome stability and regeneration, they'll bring exciting science to Philadelphia. 🔗https://buff.ly/7IBPyFM

My time at Clark is coming to end. I will defend my thesis this Thursday, July 30th, at 10 a.m. EST. I am grateful to everyone who has encouraged, supported, and mentored me throughout this journey. I look forward to sharing my findings with you.

I love a good scientific article title. "Honeypots: a review of repletism across the ants"

So excited to share that one of the chapters from my thesis has been published! In it we discovered that, despite previous assumptions, Escovopsis (a mycoparasite in the fungus growing ant symbiosis), has a complete MAT locus under purifying selection.

Genome Biology and Evolution@genomebiolevol.bsky.social · 2w ago

@soleilsolay.bsky.social et al. find that Escovopsis s.l. - specialized fungal parasite of the fungus-growing ant symbiosis - likely undergoes cryptic sex as all examined strains have a complete mating-type locus under purifying selection. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag160 #evolution #societyjournal

Just had an NSF proposal rejected after almost a year pending. One of the reviewers tanked it by not seeing that we had clear documentation for the things they asked for (and that the other reviewers clearly saw). Didn't go to panel though because the NSF is being destroyed.

Oh, hey, Evolution did a "digest" of our recent piece on rodent stripes. academic.oup.com/evolut/artic... (OG paper here: academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...)

Join our HFSP team on this amazing project! This will be an experimental postdoc position based in Amsterdam. There will be a more bioinformatic/evolutionary postdoc position based in Cambridge coming up soon. #socialfluids

Joris M. Koene@joriskoene.bsky.social · 4w ago

Are you a biologist with experience in and enthusiasm for imaging and -omics techniques? Apply for working in Amsterdam (@vuamsterdam.bsky.social) on the exciting topic of socially transferred materials! 🐌 🐸 🐜🧬🔬 workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/po...

This is a great meeting and I’m looking forward to attending and catching up with all the great symbiosis science. I’ll also be there in my role as EiC of the new @isme-microbes.bsky.social journal ISME Host Microbe. Happy to discuss about your next manuscript!

Conference on Beneficial Microbes@benmicrobesmtg.bsky.social · 4w ago

The 2026 Conference on Beneficial Microbes will be co-organized with the International Symbiosis Society from July 19th - July 23rd. Its not too late to register! #BeneficialMicrobes10 #BeneficialMicrobesMtg #ISS #SymbioSky

On this last day of #Evol2026, a reminder to sign up for the ASN Stand Alone meeting, on the East Coast of the US for the first time! www.amnat2027.org Registration is open. It's a small conference and spots are limited.

ASN Stand Alone Meeting 2027

Jan 8-12 - Long Island, NY. Learn more about the conference and register here!

amnat2027.org

🚨 #Evol2026 attendees - our team at @arcadiascience.com is hiring! We're looking to hire a computational evolutionary biologist interested in asking how and why protein sequences/structures/functions differ across the tree of life 🧬 jobs.lever.co/arcadiascien... Please share widely!

Registration for the American Society of Naturalists stand-alone meeting is now open! www.amnat2027.org The former Asilomar meeting will be held in a mansion on Long Island in Jan '27. Limit of 200 people. @asn-amnat.bsky.social #Evol2026

Want to learn about ant biology, systematics, taxonomy, field ecology, and so much more? Join us for #AntCourse Oct 12-22 at the Colorado State University Todos Santos Center in Baja California Sur, Mexico! Applications due July 1 www.antcourse.org

Ant Course

2026 Dates: October 12–22 Deadline to apply: 1 July 2026 Location: Colorado State University Todos Santos Center, Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico

antcourse.org

Do you study human microbiomes? Have you used the word "commensal"? Then this paper was written with you in mind! It was an absolute pleasure to write this with the incomparable @ginalewin.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

mGem: Tapping into the language of symbiosis to advance human microbiome research | mBio

An overarching goal in microbiome research is to understand how the complex communities in our bodies contribute to health and disease, and ultimately, we aim to leverage and control these communities...

journals.asm.org

Happy to share this perspective about better integrating the microbiome and symbiosis fields, starting with a call to be more accurate with our terminology journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... Was the best experience to write this article with the amazing @khadlily.bsky.social #microbiome #microsky

mGem: Tapping into the language of symbiosis to advance human microbiome research | mBio

An overarching goal in microbiome research is to understand how the complex communities in our bodies contribute to health and disease, and ultimately, we aim to leverage and control these communities to promote health. To continue advancing this work, we need conceptual frameworks that aid in understanding the relationships between us and our microbiota. Conceptual frameworks can ensure that we avoid doing our science in silos by unifying work across disciplines, and they can help form hypotheses and questions for future research. In human microbiome research, there have been various conceptual frameworks that have advanced our science (1–4). In this perspective, we highlight the symbiosis framework and definitions in connection to microbiome research, with the hope that adoption of this framework will advance our ability to study the human microbiome.

journals.asm.org

🚨Job claxon🚨 4-year #Postdoc available in our lab in @camzoology.bsky.social developing molecular and anatomical approaches to mapping evolutionary changes in the brain, using #Heliconiini butterflies. Come join us, we are nice. 🧪 www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

My latest: To be single, childless, and then to lose a parent. A compound grief for what I thought my midlife would be. I've been trying to fill the void with beauty-- but ended up with blood and shattered glass. When Beautifying Your Grief Doesn't Work open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

When Beautifying Your Grief Doesn't Work

"See? I'm better now!"

open.substack.com

On May 1 the lab celebrated the end of a tough but productive semester! Five papers submitted and a lot of work put in. The lovely Ariane Peralta send over an Edible Arrangement to celebrate Lily's tenure packet submission and we all chowed down :)

People working in microbial ecology and evolution in Southern California, specially if you have some great undergraduates consider register for #MEEHubs2026 at meehubs2026.oa-event.com We will still open the opportunity for local poster presentations and we have funds to cover students.

Lots of people have reached out asking how they can support us after the devastating fire in the MSL building, the heart of @cmarinescience.bsky.social Here’s one way, a GoFundMe organized by our graduate students - gofund.me/4373c6ff3. Please share widely, and thanks for helping our community!

Donate to USF Marine Science: Fire Recovery Support, organized by Bella Iannotta

On Saturday, May 2nd the University of South Florida Marine Science Lab (MSL)… Bella Iannotta needs your support for USF Marine Science: Fire Recovery Support

gofund.me

When two species hybridize, do all genes flow equally? Not quite. Won best graduate student poster at Rutgers Newark Research Week showing that introgression between lizard species is asymmetric and selection may be filtering which loci cross the species boundary. #Evolution #Genomics #Hybridization

Interested in a teaching faculty position in Bacteriology at UW-Madison? See the attached announcement! @uwbact.bsky.social

Want to switch countries for a postdoc? Specifically, are you European, or are you non-European wanting to come to Europe? Now's the time to reach out to potential host labs! (It's very normal to cold-email a PI about potentially hosting -- don't be shy!)

European Commission@ec.europa.eu · 4mo ago

Big opportunities for researchers 🌍 We are investing nearly €400 million to help researchers share their work and collaborate with the best scientific teams across the EU. The 2026 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships are now open. More: link.europa.eu/PNxpxw

Why to choose between ants and microbes when you can have both? @khadlily.bsky.social, @adriatica.bsky.social and co. have been diving into what's happening in the honeypot ant repletes for years, and the first papers are coming out 🎉 (photo copyright: Smithsonian Institution-NMNH-Insect Zoo)

bioRxiv Genomics@biorxiv-genomic.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Genomic insights into bacterial isolates dominating honeypot ant crop microbiomes reveal metabolically distinct Fructilactobacillus sp. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.09.717501v1

Belated congrats to postdoc @ian-oiler.bsky.social for winning a poster award at the RUMP (Rutgers University Microbiome Program) Symposium! He presented his work on honeypot-associated Fructilactobacillus genomes and genome-scale metabolic models. Thanks RUMP and the RAD Collaboratory!

Disgraceful! The US/Israel just bombed Sharif University in Tehran. This is not only Iran's best university, but also a top 100 global university in the field of Civil Engineering. It has also been a center of student opposition to the Iranian gov And Trump just bombed it...

Are you (or something you know) looking for a PhD? Like trait macroevolution but also yearn for an applied topic? Think plants are neat? Want to live in beautiful northeast Scotland?! 🌊🐬⛰️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 I'm advertising a PhD in my lab! Deadline April 22, email me any questions. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

QUARTILES DLA CASE: Trait-based drivers of the ornamental plant trade at University of Aberdeen on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - QUARTILES DLA CASE: Trait-based drivers of the ornamental plant trade at University of Aberdeen , listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

Excited to announce our new journal from @isme-microbes.bsky.social ISME Host Microbe is live and now accepting submissions. Look forward to receiving your papers! #Microsky 🧫 🦠

Last week we received an OSCARR (Open Scholarship Commitment Award for Reproducible Research) for our research together with collaborators at @harvardforest.bsky.social on New England hurricanes and forest carbon stocks

The girls’ school in Iran, where 165 people were killed by an apparent US-Israeli attack, was hit with two strikes, with the second missile killing sheltering survivors, two first responders and the parent of a slain child have told Middle East Eye.

Exclusive: Iranian girls killed by ‘double-tap’ strikes on Minab school

Eyewitnesses describe second blast which killed survivors as they sheltered in prayer hall

middleeasteye.net

Americans are exhausted by endless wars built on lies and paid for with American and foreign lives. I'm urging my colleagues to vote YES on the War Powers Resolution authored by Khanna-Massie and stop Trump's illegal war in Iran.